And run for office in 1944 knowing he wouldn’t finish his term? Here’s a fascinating article from Slate on a book called FDR’s Deadly Secret — coming out in January.
Beginning in early 1944, the fact that Roosevelt had severely elevated blood pressure and congestive heart failure was also kept secret. These diagnoses were made by Howard G. Bruenn, a Columbia University cardiologist and Navy physician who became Roosevelt’s primary doctor. When Roosevelt died of a brain hemorrhage on April 12, 1945, early in his fourth term, Bruenn misleadingly analogized the bleed to a “bolt of lightning.” Of course, he knew better: Very high blood pressure can cause bleeding in the brain.
It was not until 1970 that Bruenn came clean—or at least seemed to. In an article in the Annals of Internal Medicine, he described his heretofore secret efforts to treat Roosevelt’s blood pressure and heart problems. The article became the definitive account of FDR’s passing. However, according to Lomazow and Fettman, it was just another attempt to obscure the truth.
Over the years, other rumors about Roosevelt’s health circulated, including the claim that he had suffered strokes. Most interesting was a 1979 paper in Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics by a surgeon and amateur historian, Harry Goldsmith, who noted that an enlarging skin lesion above Roosevelt’s left eye disappeared in photographs after 1940. He theorized that the lesion was a melanoma, the deadliest of skin cancers, and that the disease had spread to Roosevelt’s abdomen, causing him episodes of severe pain during the last months of his life.
Here’s a taste of their evidence:
The most provocative evidence the authors present is that Roosevelt had a left-sided hemianopsia—a loss in vision—toward the end of his life. This indicated a mass in the right side of his brain. Lomazow and Fettman arrive at this conclusion based on an ingenious bit of research. On March 1, 1945, Roosevelt had given a speech to Congress, reporting on his recent trip to Yalta to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. During the speech, Roosevelt appeared confused: He skipped words in his prepared remarks, ad-libbed, and repeated several points. Critics later seized on this speech as evidence that the president was deteriorating mentally.
Lomazow and Fettman obtained both a video of Roosevelt giving the speech and the text he used. Comparing the two, they concluded that the president could not see the left side of the page. His seeming mistakes and confusion reflected his attempts to compensate. The authors also found evidence of similar behavior by FDR when he had read another speech for newsreel cameras. There are also several other reasons to suspect that Roosevelt had cancer: He appears to have made secret visits to at least two cancer specialists for evaluation of melanoma, possible prostate cancer, or both. He also lost more than 30 pounds during his last year of life. Although Bruenn suggested that the weight loss stemmed from dieting, Lomazow and Fettman believe that cancer—leading to abdominal pain and loss of appetite—makes more sense.
And of course, there’s always the possibility that his physician was telling the truth. Specialists often don’t know squat about other areas. Even the most brilliant cardiologist might not be much of an oncologist. The “what-ifs” are fascinating as it seems most probable FDR never would’ve won election if the public had known he had fatal cancer or maybe even out of control hypertension and congestive heart failure for that matter. Is POTUS health a national security matter in time of war or does the public have the right to know? Seeing as the President swears an oath to the Constitution and to faithfully execute his duties it seems clear the balance should swing completely to our right to know. It seems the physician’s oath would dictate that the best thing for such a patient would not be the most stressful job in the world. Evidence #459,909 that no one is irreplaceable.
Floyd,what’s truly scary about that FDR could have dropped dead and Henry Wallace would have been President
very true….
I know very little about Henry Wallace.
How is it scary?
Wallace was a Communist, for all practical purposes.
I find I don’t care. I’m more interested in Warren G. Harding being assasinated by his wife.
She was certainly long suffering enough.
Interesting. May have to get this book.
There was a concerted effort during the war to make Roosevelt the nation’s rallying point, sort of a cult of personality (where would the Democrats have gotten that idea, I wonder?). Probably not a good thing, especially when it involved two extra re-elections.
Imagine if a Republican had been elected president. Is it possible the Russians wouldn’t have made out so well when the spoils were divided? One can only dream.
I think FDRs tour of duty was more because of what was happening. The depression, then the war – Americans don’t like changing leaders in mid-stream. we have a “finish it, dammit” attitude towards these things. FDR was the personality for the job: Urbane, jovial, witty, he captured that sunny optimism that was sorely missing everywhere else.
So to sum up, FDR’s health was deteriorating all the time he was in office, to the extent that, in retrospect, one should have expected him to die of an aneurysm.
At least it’s wasn’t Nathaniel Bush, who put cyanide into FDR’s cigarette holder, thus starting the darkness of the NWO.
Maybe MSNBC should start a new series: Six Degrees of BOOOOSH, detailing how everything that has gone wrong with this country can be traced back to the Bushes.
The rumor I heard was that FDR died in a hot tub from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. That would explain why his funeralization was very speedy and closed casket.
You will also read how America became perilously close to President Henry Wallace in May 1941! Now that’s a scary prospect!
This neurologist has spent four years studying every aspect of FDR’s health. I’ve learned about many other disciplines in the process and also came to know his incredibly narcissistic, manipulative and deceptive personality.
Researching the book has been a tremendous learning experience and when read carefully I sincerely believe readers will be as convinced as I now am about the realities of FDR’s health and the historical importance of the implications we are making.
BTW, I’m a huge Marx Brothers fan as well!
Steven Lomazow, M.D.
Dr. Lomazow… welcome to Threedonia! It sounds like a fascinating book — an Amazon wish lister to be sure.
Harding, Wilson, Reagan, Garfield post assassination, Zachary Taylor, William Henry Harrison, and I’m sure I’m missing other health implications.
An obviously shallower look was the movie “Dave” back in the 1990s. Even though it was liberal wishful thinking vis a vis it did raise exactly the same questions though being a light comedy didn’t probe the more important issues.
Kit,here is what Henry Wallace said about the Soviet Union and the USA after his visit to Kolyma(a slave camp the size of France in the Russian Far East)in May 1944:”There is nothing irreconcilable in our aims and purposes.Those who so proclaim are wittingly or unwittingly looking for war-and that,in my opinion,is criminal.”
Thanks Floyd,
Of course there is Calvin Coolidge’s depression, Grover Cleveland’s surreptitious cancer surgery, Eisenhower’s heart attacks and strokes and and then JFK!
Hail threedonia!
I read where Garfield died not from Guiteau’s bullet,but from the doctors sticking their dirty fingers down into his wound…
Garfield is interesting. Alexander Graham Bell actually was asked to find the bullet.With the medical standards of the day he was doomed from the time he was shot. He surely would have survived with modern day antiseptic surgical techniques.
I don’t want to bother you, Dr. Lomazow, but if you could explain why Bell was asked to find the bullet, I think it’d be fascinating.
I’m envisioning some kind of 19th century ultrasound.
Oh cool! Hey Doctor Steve!
a bullet hole to the head ???
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/greg/?p=1241